


Masks fall

by loveamongstars



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-07 00:10:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18399170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveamongstars/pseuds/loveamongstars
Summary: Everybody has secrets, even little spiders and very observant girls.  When Spider-Man unceremoniously lands on the roof top right in front of Michelle Jones, it wasn't just Spidey's mask to fall, but MJs as well.





	Masks fall

The pages felt soft under her fingers, familiar and comforting. Michelle Jones had found comfort in books for years now. Life had dealt her a hard card, but she was coping. She had found ways. Usually one of them was to hole up somewhere with a book on her lap, ready to escape this world for a better one, because this world was not as ideal as others. Heroes in books had it a chance of being heroes. For her, it was an uphill battle, one she wasn’t sure she could win. And yet she tried. But for tonight it was Michelle and her book and the quiet roof of the apartment complex she lived in. It was, in many ways her place. She had a blanket, some snacks, water and pillows stored in a box up there, for evenings like that. It was still relatively warm, so she did not need the blanket yet. But she was also not going back down anytime soon.

There was a sound out of place. It sounded like someone screamed “Oops.” But this high up, this was unlikely. And with her view of the door down, there was no way anyone could just come up and surprise her. She might be in another world, but she was still aware of her surroundings. A flash of movement caught her eyes before she saw someone fall face first onto the roof. Michelle jumped in surprise. It was not every day that someone fell onto the roof you were hiding on.

And not just someone it seemed. As Michelle squinted her eyes in suspicion, she noticed the familiar red and blue of a certain arachnid-named vigilante with a so-called secret identity. Not that she bought it. There were just too many coincidences with that one. 

“Graceful, Spider-Man. Ten out of ten. I have to say, I have never seen a spider fall that soundly onto their face!” Michelle smirked a little at that as Spider-Man looked up, at the same time athletically pushing up into a stand. That was certainly something MJ could not do. A small chuckle escaped her as she saw the mask of the vigilante: One eye seemed normal, the other seemed widened in fear almost. “Your eyes are crooked. I guess you damaged yourself.”

“Sorry.” Spider-Man poked himself in the eye quite hard, probably trying to rectify the situation of the giant eye.

“Having a spider black eye?” Michelle followed. It did seem like he had gotten one too many knocks on it.

“More like a spider concussion”, Spider-Man answered. He seemed a little restless, anxious even. It didn’t take a genius to have an idea why. Or well it took someone having an inkling on who was hiding behind the mask. The fact that he did not seem to use anything to alter his voice, did not help the matter. “What are you doing up on the roof at this late time?”

Michelle took a moment to consider her reply. She pulled her legs close to her chest, after placing the book carefully on her box. With a few well-trained movements she had her yellow robe carefully tucked around her legs to protect them from the cold breeze.  
“I’m looking at the stars”, she replied. Spider-Man looked up immediately, causing the teenager to chuckle again. However, when he looked down again, his eye seemed to go crazy, as if it was unable to focus on her. The other still seemed fine. It made him look slightly crazy.

“We’re in New York, there is light pollution, so you can’t see the stars”, the young vigilante pointed out.

“I was messing with you.”

“Bold.”

“Says the guy in a red and blue onesie, who face-planted onto my roof and got a case of crazy eye right now.”

His reply came instantly: “Hey! It’s not a onesie!”

“Is it one piece of clothing?”, MJ asked. Spider-Man nodded, he almost looked sheepily at that. “Then it’s a onesie.”

“It is a high-tech suit!”

“High-tech onesie!” Michelle countered. Now it was on him to chuckle lightly. So apparently he did like this exchange as well. So it didn’t ruin either of their evenings. That was good. In a way, it was even a highlight for her. Her evening had not been too good. That was why she had come up here to hide away from what was down in the apartment. For a moment there was silence. He had no comeback it seemed and that was interesting. But the tone seemed to shift suddenly - despite the rather weird way his eye still went crazy. He had been shifting his weight from one leg to the other - a typical Peter thing - now he placed himself firmly on the ground like he did when he got serious. He also seemed to stand up a little taller. His body language remained open, curious and worried. 

“Why are you really up here?” It was as if he knew her thoughts at that moment, but Michelle knew that that was impossible. As the mood had shifted between them, so had her thoughts. He did look worried and she hated that. Michelle didn’t want people to be worried about her, because she feared being hurt again. She knew it was a weird logic, but sometimes logic just did not apply to humans. In many ways, it didn’t apply to her life. She lived in New York. There were superheroes and aliens in New York, New York defied logic often. And so she considered telling him the truth. She considered telling him that she was hiding up here sometimes. She considered telling him that she was hiding from her stepfather. But she didn’t want to, because he was someone who helped people. He was the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. He helped the little people, too. She didn’t need Spider-Man. She could handle this alone. 

However, the breeze seemed to make the decision for her. It caught her thin robe and lifted it away from her leg. Once noticed MJ scrambled to pull it back over her legs, but she could see by the way he stiffened. Suddenly there was tension in his body, the skintight suit showed that of rather nicely. She had an idea why.

“MJ, what happened to your leg?”, he asked. Michelle immediately noticed he had called her by her name, by how she told him he could call her as her friend. It showed that this was a genuine reaction. It wasn’t acted, thought through and mentally checked for the consequences. This was Peters genuine reaction to seeing bruises on her legs. It felt horrible to Michelle. It felt like someone drove a small knife into her throat as she realized what it meant. He had seen the evidence of how hard life could be at her home, that she could be vulnerable. It was something she wanted to hide. But she knew there was a way to deflect.

“MJ? I mean….you could have just announced yourself as Peter…” He flinched a little at that. The way his shoulders moved made it clear, that he was confused, probably at how she knew he was Peter. He reached for his - still malfunctioning - mask and pulled it off.

“How did you know?” He asked, his face a mixture of panic, pain, and confusion. A colorful array of bruises adorned his face.

“I’m very observant,” Michelle said, hoping it had successfully distracted him from her bruises. But his look went back to her legs and now she could truly see the worry in his eyes. But it was not directed at Michelle knowing his secret, it was because of her leg. At that moment only one thought crossed her mind, a lie.

“Lifting in dancing. Some of the guys are very clumsy.” He nodded, but the worry remained. Without being invited he just flopped down next to her, without a single ounce of grace, as if Spider-Man was turned off entirely and this was purely Peter, her friend from school in a ridiculous costume. “What happened to you?” She asked in return.

“A robbery. There were people so I had to take a few punches to… make sure nobody gets hurt, except for me. I heal fast.” MJ knew as much already. She had seen faint bruises on him before, but they disappeared fast. She had already had the thought that he healed fast due to that secret. Now she had confirmation in a way.  
“Will you tell anyone?”

“Your secret?” She asked. She shook her head. “Of course not. You’re the one superhero who takes care of the little people. I’ll never tell anyone.” The superhero reached for her box and pulled out one of her books. Without another word he started to read, settling into a comfortable silence with Michelle. She turned to her own book, letting him sit next to her until she got up, needing to actually go back down and sleep there. “You should get some sleep, too. School and all that.” He pulled the malfunctioning mask back on and gave her a thumbs up. Jumping up he ran to the edge of the building and jumped from it… Michelle gasped as no web came from his wrist and for the second time that night she heard his “Oops” as a scream as he fell onto the fire escape. “I’m good!” He assured her right away as he finally managed to get a web out of the other wristband and swung away. Michelle shook her head amused and finally turned to back down and to bed as well.

*-*-*-*

In the next two weeks, things changed for Peter, but he had to admit, he loved the change a lot. Michelle now sat with him and Ned and she casually slipped him some articles that would help him with being the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, mostly about deescalating a situation, how to talk to traumatized children and such. It was small, but he really, really appreciated it. Today he found an article in his backpack about the Sokovia Accords, with several pages highlighted.

He put them on his bedside table to read when he came back from the patrol that night, not knowing that Michelle herself would prevent him from doing so. He was just wrapping up helping a young man out of the Hudson river - alcohol and a fight with his girlfriend were involved - when he got a text. Karen helpfully showed it to him right away. It was Michelle.

“Could really use a friendly neighborhood arachnid faceplanting onto my roof right now” was what it said. The text caused his stomach to cramp uneasily. He knew something was wrong. He didn’t know everything about Michelle, but she was proud and she would not outright ask for help like that. This was her asking for help. It might not be in the letters, but he knew. And he also knew it was…not good.

When he arrived on her roof - this time no faceplanting involved, it was rather graceful, thank you - he could not see her. He saw her spot and her box and her blanket piled up.

“MJ?”, he asked, leaving his mask on for now, not sure if someone else was perhaps here or not. A beep from the mask alerted him of the heartbeat under the blankets the same time he heard MJ say “Here” from under there. It sounded so weak and shaky. A cold shudder ran through him as he ran. He usually wouldn’t run, but he had to run in this case, something in him told him to. She had already lifted the blanket for him. It took only a short glance at her for him to see what was wrong. Her arm looked funny and not normal at all. Broken  
“What happened?” he asked as he knelt down next to her.

“My stepfather got drunk. He…flailed and hit me in the face with the elbow and I fell down the stairs.” She said. He saw the bruise under her eye. It didn’t look good. 

“I’m taking you to the hospital!” He announced.

“No. Peter, I can’t. I…can't afford it.” The vigilante smiled under his mask. 

“Do not worry about that, okay? Spider-Man has ways, trust me. That arm needs treatment!” He could see it in her eyes, that she knew he was right. She hated this situation much more than he did, too. And he did hate it. He felt rage at her stepfather, but also at himself. He should have asked her more. He should not have let her explanation slide. He should have considered her pride. But he couldn’t. Peter picked her up carefully, so she could put her good arm around. He found her quiet after that. As Peter jumped from the roof - his webs working this time, as he had repaired the suit - he felt her hide her face in her shoulder, shaking, probably with fear. He couldn’t really blame her. It was not every day, one swung with spiderwebs through New York to a hospital. Peter could imagine that this even hurt quite a bit.

Once at the hospital, he gave her to the people working there and went to pay for it, with a credit card given to him for emergencies, in cases of people needing medical attention and not being able to afford them by themselves. He looked back at her before leaving the hospital, for a while. He called his aunt to tell May that he would be in the hospital for Michelle, so she wouldn’t have to stay alone - that was assuming she would stay alone like that.

When Michelle was left alone, her arm in a cast, a soothing creme on her bruises, Peter Parker was allowed to go into her. He had told the nurses, that Spider-Man had called one of Michelle's last contacts, assuming correctly that it had to be a friend who could contact everyone else that was needed in order to make sure the teenager was taken care of. He smiled at the girl as he came closer.

“Hey, how are you feeling?”, he asked her as he simply sat down close to the bed she was in. She gave him a weak smile.

“Bruised pride. A spider saved me.”

“A spider in a ridiculous onesie, might I add,” Peter said simply, echoing her thoughts from the other night and she knew why. It was just to make her smile. And it was working. “My aunt is coming to get us. She is arranging for you to stay at our place tonight…for a sleepover. I could even put on a ridiculous onesie.”

“No ridiculous onesie required. And Spider-Mans onesie is kind of cool.”

“Thank you,” Peter said with a smile.

“Thank you, Peter… it feels pretty good to have a friend. One who always has your back.”

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written anything like a fanfiction in ages, so I feel a bit rusty. Constructive criticism is more than welcome!


End file.
